


She Knew

by 11chance11



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, First Kiss, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 20:31:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5757451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/11chance11/pseuds/11chance11
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve, Mary, and Joanie have said goodbye to their beloved Aunt Deb and Danny comes over to help Steve at the end of a tough day.  In a small conversation between them, Steve reveals something to Danny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Knew

**Author's Note:**

> Using a bit of flashbacks to Aunt Deb's last two prior appearances on 'Hawaii 5-0' to write this piece with this past week's episode Ua ola loko i ke aloha (Love Gives Life Within). I didn't beta it, but proofed it.

(Flashback)

Thanksgiving ,2013. McGarrett House

 

Smiling wide and eyes showing open curiosity, Deborah McGarrett leaned over to her niece as she took the tiny baby girl from her hands and whispered to her, "Who's that man who's talking to your brother...the one whose arms are waving around like they're trying to take off?"

Mary McGarrett laughed as she cooed softly to her little daughter. The baby giggled back from her place in Deb's arms.

"That's Steve's partner at 5-0 AND his best friend even if he won't ever say it!" she explained, her eyes full of humor. "They're surf buddies, too!" she revealed as if she was parting with some deep, long held secret.

"What?" Deb was confused, but Mary shook her head. 

"Never mind. His name's Danny Williams. He was a detective in Newark before he moved out here right before Steve took the job the governor gave him heading up 5-0. He made Danny join his team. Danny always says he kidnapped him."

Mary nodded to a lanky little girl with a sweet grin and long hair who Steve was currently teasing.

"That's his daughter, Grace. He moved out here to be with her after his marriage broke up. Steve loves the kid! I think he's got a crush on Danny." Mary giggled again.

Deb shot her a look but the smile never left her face. "Is he single?" she wondered idly as she patted little Joanie McGarrett's back lovingly.

"Yeah, I guess." Mary told her. "He dates, but.... I don't know where either of them have time for girlfriends. They're always hanging around each other. Steve's been pouty and huffy lately because Danny went back to Jersey for his dad's birthday and he missed him. I think they like talked every day on the phone!" 

Mary was laughing as she watched her older brother interacting with Danny. Occasionally, stray fragments of Danny's current rants and their insults back and forth reached the women's ears. 

"UGh, Joanie is too young for this, Steve!" Mary shook her head.

"He's cute!" Deb noted thoughtfully admiring the detective's blond hair and shiny blue eyes. "Why haven't I heard about him yet?"

Her eyes briefly wandered towards the other side of the room where he saw the thin limbed brunette talking to some of the other people around her. The woman was laughing and gesturing occasionally.

Deb looked back at her handsome nephew. He hadn't moved away from the blond man he was obviously enjoying needling about something.

She swung her head back in the direction of her niece who shrugged and raised an eyebrow as if to say, "See what I mean?"

"I think I want to meet him, Mary." she decided and still holding baby Joanie in her arms, she headed over to Steve and Danny.

"Are you going to stand here all night and hog up your guest, Stevie, or am I going to finally get an introduction?" she wanted to know, he eyes twinkling in mirth as she lightly scolded him.

"Ah, yeah, I'm sorry," Steve said quickly and started to gesture in Danny's direction, but his partner cut him off and smiled into Deb's waiting face.

"I'm Danny Williams, Ms. McGarrett." he said extending his hand for her to shake. "I work with Steve." 

"It's nice to meet you, Danny." she smiled and stared pointedly at Danny and then at Danny and Steve. "And it's Deb...or you know what, better yet, do what Steve and Mary do and make it Aunt Deb." 

Danny laughed a bit and nodded his head. "Okay,...Aunt Deb." he tried out. He turned to introduce Grace to her, but his little girl had wandered off a few moments ago in search of Kamekona and Flippa. The two cousins were part of their little ohana, fun to be around and Grace just adored them.

"Tell me about yourself, Danny." Deb prompted him with a warm inviting tone.

Steve looked pointedly at Deb for several seconds and then beyond her towards Mary who wore a look of complete innocence in return and smirked back at him.

"What did Mary tell you, Aunt Deb?" McGarrett wanted to know, his blue-hazel eyes glaring at his younger sister who refused to blink. 

"Nothing, sweetheart." she insisted. "Steve, I think that Joanie needs her mother, would you mind, honey?" Deb easily and quickly cut off any attempt the state Task Force leader may have had to either question Deb or keep her away from Danny by handing over the baby and depositing her into his arms and then linking her arms loosely around Danny's who cautiously took it.

"Let's talk, dear. I want to hear all about you." Deb told him and indicated that they walk towards the lanai at the back of the house.

"What?" Steve asked out loud wondering how he'd lost control of the whole situation in the first place. 

Aunt Deb giggled as she chatted away with Danny as they walked off together.

"Yeah, but..." Steve said helplessly as Joanie made baby sounds at him to get his attention. "Not now, Baby..." he shook his head, patting her back. "I have to..." 

He put out a foot to follow his partner and his aunt, but she called out over her shoulder, "Stevie, Joanie needs her mother, honey..." before she and Danny disappeared outside.

Steve's lips thinned as he stared after them helplessly. "What am I going to do with your mother and our aunt?" he asked the baby.

She cooed him at him and grinned. 

"You're a lot of help." he grumbled, but leaned in to kiss her forehead making her display her baby laugh for him.

Steve turned in Mary's direction and walked purposefully towards her. Pinning her down with his thousand yard Navy SEAL stare, he handed Joanie over to her.

"That never works on me." Mary told him sweetly.

"Wanna bet?" he asked her in challenge.

"Don't worry, your secret is probably still safe for another few seconds. But, she's pretty good." Mary reminded him with raised eyebrows.

"I don't have any secrets." Steve said trying to stare her down and shifting uncomfortably as he watched the lanai doors.

"Okay, right. I didn't think they taught x-ray vision in the SEALS. You're trying to stare down the doors, Steve. Seriously, what are you trying to do? Read their lips from here?!" Mary answered sarcastically. "Let's just go check on the turkey." she smirked at him.

(End of flashback)

 

Present Day  
McGarrett House

 

"Hey." Danny said quietly with a tiny half smile as he stepped out onto the lanai and into the evening Hawaiian air towards his friend.

Steve was lounging on a patio chair, a half empty bottle of Longboard beer dangling from one of his hands. He was staring out across the little beach and to the cove. 

The sound of the water reached Danny's ears as he took the seat next to him. 

"Hey." Steve called only sparing him a brief look before returning back to his staring. "Beer?" he added.

"Nah. Driving back, so no." he settled himself easily into the chair to get comfortable. He had fought with himself a dozen times about coming over tonight. Steve, Mary, and Joanie needed their space after today. They didn't need him hanging around.

But, Danny was worried and he had been unable to shut off his feelings like he'd hoped to do and called Mary who told him to come over, sure. Steve could use him right now. He was the one he wanted even if he was too much of an idiot to come right out and ask him.

It was deja vu all over again. He could remember coming over here not that long ago when Catherine had taken off after dumping Steve a second time.

To be fair, she had probably never really promised anything when she suddenly sprung out of the woodwork again for Kono's wedding. It killed him to have to say that Steve probably had a hand in this whole mess with her that had left him alone again.

It angered Danny that she'd come back again after leaving him the first time. Danny had warned her not to hurt him again. 

Worked out for you, didn't it? His mind asked him. Her leaving again finally, finally opened a door for you and Steve that you never thought would happen, right? Maybe she knew that you'd always be there anyway.

How could he argue with that? How could he ignore the fact that during a moment where just enough alcohol, too much time covering up a mutual attraction that had been building from the moment they'd met those years ago in his garage when Steve had returned back home to Hawaii, and insanity in general combined to make one blinding, toe curling kiss against the wall in Steve's kitchen.

When they'd finally pulled apart after having pawed at each other and fisting each other's clothes, Danny had left dizzy and disoriented and wondering how he'd managed to hold himself back from that all this time. His mind worked over time as he'd driven back to his own house, the image of him and Steve all over each other for several, crazed moments playing over as the sounds of their moaning and breathing filled up in his ears. Oh, he needed that to happen again, he realized...and soon.

But, the steps they'd taken since had been painfully slow alternating between making out like teenagers and chaste little touches and glances. He knew it was only matter of time before both of them exploded again. 

"I want you, Danny. I've liked you that way for awhile." Steve had told him soon after that kiss as he was driving them in Danny's Camero on the way to their latest crime scene.

"I shouldn't have....done it like that, drinking and crawling all over you...." he started to say by way of a bumbling apology. "I don't..."

"Don't worry about it. I want you, too." Danny put in in between his words, his eyes straight ahead. They were on their way to a shooting standoff with only time to get their TAC vests on and grab what they would need and check in with Chin, Kono, and Lou. This hadn't been the time for personal confessions and close up examinations of admitting they turned each ot her on like crazy, apparently.

But, Danny had needed Steve to know he felt the same way, that he wasn't alone with these topsy turvey emotions. And what a relief it had been to finally admit it.

It was another step. 

Danny wiped at his face now and asked quietly, "Did everything go okay today?" 

The other man's dark head nodded. "Mary and I took her up the mountain like she had wanted. We brought Joanie, too....I think she would have liked it. The view from up there is unbelievable."

Steve spent the next few seconds talking about how Joanie had liked what they saw and how the weather was perfect and how Mary was in better shape for the climb than Steve thought she'd be because he didn't know if she had time for things like exercise since becoming a mom.

He was talking about everything but what he wanted to say.

"I'm sorry, Steve." Danny interrupted him gently. "I'm sorry Aunt Deb's gone." 

Steve nodded, his heart clenching tightly and painfully in his chest. "I know. It wasn't...unexpected, I guess. The tumor must have...come back, I guess." 

He shook his head. "She missed him. She just missed him too much." His eyes had glassed over, but the tears refused to fall.

Danny lifted his head and turned it in Steve's direction and waited for him to continue. He knew, but Steve needed to say it to him.

"She missed Leonard too much." 

"I know she did. She really loved him and Steve, he really loved your aunt. I saw it that day when they got married." Danny affirmed for him. "I think it was a good thing they had, babe."

"It was, yeah. 

Danny reached over and carefully brushed a hand over his friend's arm. The contact brought instant awareness and Steve's skin quivered.

Danny pulled back. This...thing was still so new, so brand new, that it still gave them a lot of awkward moments where they didn't quite know what to do from time to time.

Sometimes, Steve would pull Danny into his arms and hold him for a few moment and he could hear his ragged breathing and heartbeat. At other times, he would tentatively take Danny's hand in his own, his fingers shaking with nervousness because he wasn't sure if Danny was ready for what was happening or not and he'd let him take over the lead.

Right now, Steve was reacting, but he didn't pull away. Danny saw that he wasn't pulling away. So, Danny kept his hand right where it was against the man's skin.

"Have you guys eaten? I can make up something pretty quick." Williams offered and made to move out of the chair, but Steve shook his head.

"Mary made sandwiches some time ago, I don't remember when. She fed Joanie and she's upstairs giving her a bath." 

He gently prodded Danny back into the chair next to him indicating that he wanted him to stay there with him.

Steve was the master at compartmentalizing everything. He just put feelings into its own air tight box and locked it up, and put it on a high shelf and away from him. He absolutely felt that he wouldn't have to feel it that way. As a Navy trained SEAL, he worked very hard at keeping those lock boxes secure and out of his way.

When his dad was murdered, back when Danny had first met the Navy Lt. Commander, a few boxes started prying loose. Then, his mother's 'return from the dead' and subsequent departure again had forced a few more loose and he'd had to tighten them up again. Now, Catherine had taken another powder, and Aunt Deb was gone and Danny could practically hear the springs popping off of the lock boxes and tearing open again.

It hadn't surprised him that Steve had never been 'Smooth Dog' (hand to heart, he'd sworn to Danny that that was what his SEAL buddies called him) when telling Danny how he felt. But, when he'd done it, when he'd let him know, there hadn't been any doubt of the sincerity of his words.

When the commotion and chaos of the their shootout had ended that day and Steve had been getting his arm patched up by the paramedics after he'd taken one near the shoulder. Danny was right by his side the whole time after he'd shoved their culprit into the back of the waiting squad car and he'd asked him only thing.

"Is this...because she left again? If it is, I get it, we don't have to you, you know." He had been prepared to go back to before when they had been just good friends and partners and he would just rant and rave about everything Steve did on the job that was just wrong, so, so wrong and Steve could go back to not listening to him and doing it anyway. It would kill him, probably, but he could do it.

"No." Steve shook his head and said very quietly and Danny had been sure he was the only one who could hear him. "I think...after you....she was because I didn't think I could have you. I'm an asshole, I know." he nodded and it was the only thing he'd said and it had done nothing short of blowing Danny away.

So, here he was, unable to fully express the deep grief he obviously felt at losing his surrogate mother and instead, just kept clinging to Danny's hand as if his life depended on it. And if Danny let him go, if he stepped even an inch away from him, Steve would fall hard.

And Danny was prepared to stay right here, right in his hold for as long as he needed him. He wouldn't say word if he didn't want him to, wouldn't ask him a single question until McGarrett wanted to tell him anything. And he wouldn't let him fall.

The detective from New Jersey was just settling back into the quiet when heard the words. He was just staring at the evening sky, his mind starting to remember that Mary and Joanie would probably be down from Joanie's bath soon, when Steve stirred next to him.

"She knew." he said, staring straight ahead.

"What?" Danny asked, confused as his head swiveled in his direction.

"She knew...about us, Danny. I started to tell her. I know it's really new between us and you should have probably been there when I told Deb that you and I had started seeing each other..."

 

(flashback)

Thanksgiving, 2014  
Iolani Palace. 5-0 Headquarters

 

"Danny!" Deb moved over to him and wrapped her arms around him in greeting. She eagerly accepted his kiss on her cheek and his own warm smile.

"Aunt Deb." he spoke softly. Deb didn't know why Steve told him Danny was so excitable. She'd never seen him as anything other than calm. "How are you doing, Handsome?" she wanted to know.

"Good." Danny answered quietly. "I'm doing okay. She must have heard about his brother, Matt, and what had happened in Columbia from Steve, but gave her a soft smile along with his answer. 

"Keeping an eye on my nephew?" Deb had a casual tone to her words, but Danny wasn't a good detective for nothing. He could see the underlying question in her eyes and in her tone as she looked at him.

"Keeping an eye on your nephew isn't easy," Danny said in a light tone. "And it's a twenty-four hour a day job, Aunt Deb." he assured her. "As a matter of fact, there aren't enough hours in a day and sometimes, there's almost not enough of me to go around to cover all the bases." 

She laughed and it poured from her mouth sweetly as she continued to watch him, her eyes twinkling. 

Steve didn't find it funny and rolled his eyes at Danny in response. Danny ignored him and congratulated Deb on her wedding the next day with her attorney boyfriend, Leonard Cassano, who she'd recently started seeing. 

Steve hadn't exactly approved because of some shady business from his past involving a mob boss back in New York, but it had turned out okay and Danny had also let his buddy know that Deb deserved her happiness and it was clear that that was with Leonard. Both of them were sick and they had made their decision to be together for however long they had left. 

"She gets this day to be happy and have everything right for her, Steve. Make it happen for her." Danny had advised him earlier. "Walk her down the aisle, take her hand and tell her you love her. It's all she wants and that's why she's getting married here."

"Steve's very lucky to have you watching over him all this time, Danny." Deb noted pointedly.

"I can take care of myself." Steve insisted, a little pout on his face.

"No, he can't." Deb mouthed to Danny. "He just thinks he can." 

"I heard that." Steve interjected, his blue eyes flashing. "Still in the room, standing right here."

"Good, then maybe you'll listen." Danny quipped. "Deb, you should inform your nephew that it's not nice to give his partner heart attacks every time he wants to play Army Ranger to go chase after bad guys." Danny taunted, looking right at Steve.

"It's the Navy, Danny. NAVY SEAL, okay?" he snapped back at him.

"He lives for the stuff." Danny went on to McGarrett's aunt. "He can't enough of it." 

"You should suggest something else to live for then," she suggested gently and Danny could see the color creeping up Steve's face out of the corner of his eye and he cleared his own throat in reaction.

Aunt Deb laughed and easily switched topics. "Leonard and I have saved you a seat right next to Steve for the ceremony tomorrow." she let him know. "Will your daughter be able to come, Danny?" 

"Huh?" Danny was taken off guard as he continued to watch Steve and not squirm. Did he guess? Probably not, but it was a good bet that his aunt had her suspicions about..something by the she was always watching and talking to Danny.

"Uh, she's got something going on at her school, but her mother's bringing her over for the reception, so she'll be there for some of it." 

Deb's smile was huge, welcoming. "Fabulous! Mary and little Joanie can't here because Joanie's sick with an ear infection. I'm so glad you and Grace can come."

"Wouldn't miss it." Danny promised her. 

Steve shifted in his stance, his eyes trying not to look at Danny or Deb. Deb, because the way she was pinning him with her look could make all of his SEAL training go right out the window and Danny because...."

"You know, Aunt Deb, Danny and I have to interrogate a potential witness for our current case." he said wiping his face with his hands. "We'll, we'll have to see you later. Maybe we could plan on having dinner together tonight. How about that?" he all but stammered.

"That would be great!" she agreed. "Leonard and I would love to have dinner with you and Danny." she agreed hurriedly. "I'll get him up to speed on our plans and you can call us when you're done with work and we'll pick a place and arrange to meet up." She added cheerfully. "Sound good?"

Steve knew his aunt. She wasn't asking; she was letting him know that this was the plan. He quickly leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. 

"Come on, Danny. We gotta go." he said and was already heading in the direction of the door....

 

(end of flashback)

 

He turned now to face his partner and look him in the eye. "She was so important to me. It was important to me that she knew I had someone....I didn't know how sick she was again, but Leonard's gone and you just never know."

"When did you tell her?" Danny asked him quietly.

"Yesterday. she was telling me about how glad she was that she had had Leonard even for a little while. She asked about you and how your were and about Grace. I told her about how you had little Charlie now, too." 

Danny nodded his blond head and admitted. "I called her to tell her how sorry I was that Leonard was gone. I would have stopped by, but I figured that you all wanted to be by yourselves and I didn't want to intrude."

"You wouldn't have been an intrusion, Danny. Never. But, I get it." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I said I had started seeing you. I told her it was still....that we just started and didn't really have everything worked out."

Danny was nervous. Deb had been a wonderful woman and Steve and Mary had adored her, probably he suspected more than their own mother for obvious reasons. Where Doris had elicited almost irritated and impatient reactions from both of them, Deb had received kindness and endless patience. Deb's opinion was well valued and Danny couldn't help but wonder what she actually thought about the fact of him and Steve together.

She had hinted that she knew more than she said the two times Danny had met with her, but really, she didn't actually have any proof or any kind of admission from them. There had been nothing to tell back then because it didn't exist in the actual sense.

From his own point of view, what could he say? "Yeah, hi, Deb, nice to meet you, nice to see you. The thing is, I have this huge crush on your nephew that is fast becoming some kind of, I don't know what to call it, but I have it bad and I'm trying like hell to pretend it doesn't actually exist. Not an easy thing to do when he knows every one of my buttons to push, you know." 

Yeah, that would have gone over really well.

He doubted that Steve's own thoughts would be much different. 

Who knew what Deb actually did feel about this one? It was a big one any way you looked at it. He still remembered he and Steve going to the governor recently and letting him know. What an exercise that had been, really! 

And they hadn't even done anything yet! He could only imagine how much McGarrett had let Deb know about their status togther.

"She said she knew. She had guessed there was something going on when she first met you two years ago." Steve gave a small smile.

"WE didn't even know then!" Danny insisted.

"Didn't we?" Steve challenged him. "Aunt Deb can see through bullshit, Danny. It's one of her super powers." he said with a twist of her mouth.

He had a point. It wasn't always easy to hide the truth no matter how hard you tried to hide it. It always wanted to be front and center.

"I don't know how she figured it out, but she did. The thing is, Danny, I'm not mad. I'm not upset or anything that she knew I was in love with you. I'm sorry that I didn't have this conversation sooner. I would have...would have loved to have you be around her. I wish I had. That's my regret. My only one, man. I guess it's because I never told you before now and...I was afraid you didn't feel the same way. I didn't want to mess us up. You gotta know I didn't want to mess us up."

He took a breath. " I told her that I had wanted to tell you for awhile, but didn't know how. She said she was happy for me. She was happy that I found my way to you and even though it took me long enough to do it, I now had something, someone with me." Steve nodded. "I think she was happy about that for me. She, ah...." He blinked hard a few times. "She said she was afraid that I was going to be here by myself. She knew you weren't going to let that happen even if...even if nothing ever happened between us. But, since it did, anyway," he cleared his throat. 

"She told me to take care of you." Steve turned in his chair and looked at the other man. "That was just her talking...she always took care of Mary and me. You don't have to take her literally." 

"I don't." he spoke now.

Steve shook his dark head. "Deb was always very...romantic, I guess. And then she married Leonard and he made her very happy."

"Yes, he did." 

"Well, she was probably just trying to rub some of that off on me...she always said I loved being alone too much."

"You do. You did." he amended. 

"I don't expect you to drop everything whenever I..." 

Danny wrinkled his face curiously. "I already do all that. Who else is crazy enough to follow you around while launch one grenade after another all over the island?" he teased him. And I really like taking care of you, he added silently. 

"I just really wanted her to know, Danny."

Danny's heart threatened to claw its way out of his chest and explode out of his body. It was hard for Steve to put into words what he felt about Danny. But, Danny knew. Steve showed him with actions that he couldn't hold back. Moments like when he'd bring him his favorite malasadas on the spur of the moment. Moments like when he'd have a movie night, just the two of them and they'd laugh and joke their way through the whole thing. He'd pick up Grace and Charlie for him or help drop them off when Rachel called with an unexpected change of plans, something that drove Danny insane on a good day. 

Or, he'd tell his Aunt Deb, one of the few important people in his life, that he was seeing Danny and they were together.

Danny took a deep breath and anyone could hear how his the breath shook with emotion that he couldn't even begin to express properly. Maybe, when he was breathing normally again, just not this second.

Detective Williams rose from his chair and took a few steps over to his partner.

"You're leaving?" Steve inquired, his face falling.

"WE...are leaving these chairs and I'm taking you upstairs to bed, SuperSEAL. You don't need to stay up all night drinking, you need to sleep."

"Not tired."

"Humor me. I deserve it after all the times I saved your ass." Danny decided. He reached for McGarrett's hand and walked with him back into the house. The two of them walked across the great room and towards the stairs. Taking them slowly, they went upstairs and headed towards Steve's room.

Danny stopped suddenly and wandered over to Mary's room and knocked on the door. "Mary?" he called out to her.

"Yeah, Danny?" she called back. " Just getting Joanie settled for the night. "I'll be out soon." 

"Yeah, Steve and I are headed to bed. Can you lock up the house for the night?" he asked her. 

"Go on to bed, you two. I'll get the locks and the alarm." she spoke softly.

"Thanks." Danny had wanted to talk to her, tell her how sorry he was for her and Joanie's loss. It can't have been in any way easy for her. Steve had told him often enough about how it was Deb who had raised Mary when her father had sent him and Mary to the mainland to live after their mother had 'died'. He'd gone onto Annapolis eventually and Mary had been sent off to California and her waiting aunt who'd given up her promising singing career to take over raising her.

He'd tell her in the morning along with maybe suggesting that maybe the two of them could come back home more often and be with Steve. The house would feel full again, that was for sure.

"Goodnight, Mary." he called to her.

"Goodnight, Danny. Goodnight, Steve." 

Danny and Steve headed to Steve's room again when the door to Mary's room opened up and she stuck her blond head through it.

"Hey, Danny?" she called out to him.

"Yeah?" he turned back around again.

"Thanks for being here. Thanks for...you know." she looked from him to her big brother who looked away.

Danny only nodded and she closed her door again as they disappeared into Steve's bedroom at the other end of the hallway.

Danny told him to go brush his teeth and take care of whatever he wanted while he waited for him out here.

"Are you going to stay here? With me?" Steve asked as he settled into bed a few moments later. He'd already been in sleep pants and tee shirt when Danny had arrived earlier that evening. They rode low on his hips now as he adjusted his long body within the covers.

"Something like that, McGarrett." Danny told him. He slipped out of his flip flops and pants and kept his boxer briefs and tee shirt on before disappearing into the bathroom for a few minutes and returning to switch off the table lamp.

"You should keep some clothes here, you know, just in case." Steve supplied helpfully.

"Move over, buddy." he instructed as he got into the bed and snuggled next to Steve's frame next to him.

"I usually sleep that side." Steve informed him.

"We'll work it out later." Danny answered him, wrapping his arms around him and pressing his face into his back. He felt Steve relax instantly as he took Danny's hand and bring it up to his chest and keep it there.

"Are you okay back there?" he asked after a few minutes of silence between them.

"Steve, I'll be honest. I don't just want to sleep with you in here, you know. But, I'm okay if you're okay right now." he pressed a kiss on Steve's shoulder as he spoke.

His skin quivered and somewhere within Danny, his blood started stirring. At some time, maybe soon if Danny had anything to say about it, they'd see about these reactions they were bringing out in each other all the time. Right now, it was all about Steve and what he needed to get him through this night.

"I'm...I miss her." Steve admitted very quietly.

"I know, baby." Danny told him back. It was an admission but also Steve's way of placing his trust in Danny to handle his feelings with care. Danny took it very seriously.

"Could I turn around? Could you...could you hold me that way for awhile?" he asked carefully.

Danny opened his arms and let Steve turn in them. Easing his head onto his chest, Danny held him, his lips brushing against his head, his hands caressing him and encouraging him to close his eyes.

"Better? Like this?" he asked him.

"Mmmm.." he only moaned in response and it was the best sound to Danny right now.

Outside, the waves from the water could be heard. Moonlight spilled in through the slats on the shutters.

Their even breathing filled the room. Steve had let his guard down completely in Danny's arms and their fingers laced together.

They slept....

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much for reading and any comments/kudos! Thank you all for all the comments and kudos on my last fic. I appreciated each and every one of them! I'm still trying to figure out all the functions on this site, so please excuse any mistakes.


End file.
